July 1, 1863, Galveston Weekly News
The Brownsville Flag of the 12th inst. says there are now no war vessels at the mouth of the Rio Grande–that the report of the Yellow Fever in that city is without foundation, but that the dangue fever is circulating through the city. Judge Redgate is now in Brownsville, having returned from his visit to England. He was captured on the Peterhoff, which vessel he appears to have been the means of bringing out as Agent of the Lloyds, and will now exercise that agency in a Texas business. The Flag says that city is crowded with people from the North East, South and West, Yankees, Confederates, Germans, Mexicans, &c., and that it is a difficult matter to cross their principal streets for the wagons and teams that crowd them. The Flag says:
“Strange to say, Boston and New York are familiar names to our sight, for we have groceries and dry goods from those hostile markets just as regular as they do in New Orleans. We send hides and wool and–shall we say it?–Cotton to the Yankees, and they send us wherewith to feed upon and wherewith to clothe ourselves. They send us powder and shot, sulphur, phosphorus, nitre, caps and all manner of explosives and destructive things, and they would send us more such things if it was as accessible to smuggle a rifled cannon across the river as it is to quietly slip over with rifle powder. It is an understood matter that this point is neutral territory, for Yankees come and go out of Brownsville just as some Confederates go in and out of New York. All this is business. Cotton, goods, specie and paper money are the blood, bones, flesh, nerves and sinews of business. To buy and sell, trade, exchange, barter and chaffer are the occupations of the hour and the day, and the huge multitude of merchants, farmers, lawyers, preachers, teamsters, doctors and feminine divinities keep straight in the faith from morning until night. Many ladies have made their appearance in the city, and our dry goods dealers have pleasanter times now than they did when none but sturdy teamsters bargained for crinoline and calico. Pretty females are here from Texas, having made their pilgrimage to this mercantile Mecca, across the desert and over the lonely road from here to Goliad, driven to the journey by the necessity of the times.”
Brownsville Market–Cotton is now selling for 20 cents cash or 25 for good paper. The Flag says people from the interior are dissatisfied with these low figures, but that the figures must come down still lower, and that the present high freights must also come down. There has been a slight advance in some goods. Coffee is quoted at 25@30c; sugar 12 to 18; bacon 14 to 25; corn $1 per bushel; brogan shoes $16 to $18 per doz.; calicoes, Am. 18c, English, 22c.
A good iron axled wagon, with five yoke of oxen attached, sold at auction on Tuesday last for $1025 in Confederate money–Flag.
The same wagon and oxen would probably have sold in this place for twice the money. Is it because Confederate money is more depreciated here than there?